Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication control technique for connecting communication apparatuses having different security levels to a network.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, products compliant with the IEEE802.11 standard (IEEE Std 802.11-1999 (R2003)) as the wireless communication standard have prevailed, and wireless LANs using communication apparatuses are generally established. The connection mode between communication apparatuses in a wireless LAN can normally be roughly classified into the following two modes.
The first mode is an infrastructure mode which is configured by a plurality of stations (STA) and an access point (AP). The second mode is an ad-hoc mode which is configured by only a plurality of stations, and makes a direct communication between stations without the intervention of any access point.
When a wireless LAN is established via an access point, which serves as a relay, as in the infrastructure mode of these modes, attention needs to be paid to the security. This is because the wireless LAN may be hacked via the access point to leak communication data to a third parity.
For this reason, in the infrastructure mode, advanced security is required to be assured upon establishing the wireless LAN (e.g., to adopt an encryption method in data transmission).
As a typical encryption method, for example, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is available. As a further advanced encryption method, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) or the like is available. These encryption methods are set by an administrator or user who manages the wireless LAN.
Recently, products which automatically implement a wireless parameter setup upon connection to the wireless LAN and a security level setup upon selection of encryption methods by pressing buttons arranged on an access point and stations have appeared.
As a standard for facilitating the wireless parameter setup and security level setup, the standard called WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) is available.
However, when the wireless parameter setup and security level setup are allowed to be automatically attained, if the wireless LAN includes a communication apparatus with a low security level, the overall security level unwantedly lowers.
Or when a communication apparatus with a low security level (e.g., WEP) sends a connection request to a wireless LAN set with a high security level (e.g., AES), connection is rejected.
For this reason, it is demanded to facilitate the setups and to also connect a communication apparatus with a low security level to a network without lowering the security level of the whole network.